Observatory:
EU: Public order and reactions to protests The substantive
reaction of the EU to the protests in Gothenburg and Genoa are
contained in the Conclusions of a specially called meeting of
the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council on 13 July 2001 (see
"Enemy within": Report and full documentation and The
enemy within II). This was followed in 2007 by the adoption of
a Security Handbook covering both public order and counter-terrorism
at EU Summits and other international meetings held in the EU.
UK: MINERS STRIKE 1984-1985: ORGREAVE: Despite finding evidence
of assault, police withholding evidence and committing perjury
the IPPC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) decides not
to investiage any further: IPPC
Decision (pdf) and IPPC
Review (pdf)

See: Orgreave:
Truth and Justice Campaign (link): "Whilst disappointed,
OTJC members are not surprised that the IPCC will not be conducting
a full investigation into policing at Orgreave on 18 June 1984.
It was back in November 2012 that South Yorkshire Police referred
itself to the IPCC, which ever since has acted slowly and conducted
little independent work in assembling and collating information.
The fact that the IPCC, described  rightly in our view
 by many prominent individuals as not fit for purpose,
is stepping aside on Orgreave affairs will not therefore be deterring
the OTJC from continuing its campaign." [epmhasis added]

See the excellent video: The
Battle for Orgreave (YouTube, link, viewed 67,204 times):
"The miners' strike 1984 was one of the longest and most
brutal in British labour history. A community fighting for jobs
and survival was wholly denigrated and depicted as violent by
the majority of the media. THE BATTLE FOR ORGREAVE puts the record
straight, as miners recount their own history.."

"In todays Chamber
judgment1 in the case of Cestaro v. Italy (application no. 6884/11)
the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there
had been: a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture and
inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on
Human Rights on account of ill-treatment sustained by the applicant,
and a further violation of Article 3 on account of the criminal
legislation applied in the present case. The case concerned events
which occurred at the end of the G8 summit in Genoa in July 2001,
in a school made available by the municipal authorities to be
used as a night shelter by emonstrators. An anti-riot police
unit entered the building around midnight to carry out a search,
leading to acts of violence."

"We note
that despite the controversy over the issue of undercover relationships
in the past couple of years, the codes of practice fail to make
any mention of intimate and sexual relationships.

"Having
had our privacy intruded upon to a huge and damaging degree we
feel that these guidelines fail to address the issues raised
by our claims and fail to offer any increased protection to the
public." They added: "The situation as it stands currently
gives free rein to officers and their handlers."

" .
[name of the visiting country] shall undertake all necessary
measures provided by the law to prevent the departure from the
territory of . name of the visiting country of any persons
who may pose a threat to public order and security during
the name of the event or who have been involved in violence or
disorder in connection with the sports events."

It thus would
cover not just those convicted in connection with sporting events
but those suspected who "may" pose a threat to public
order. And: "If it is legally possible to prevent the
"risk supporters"/supporters with a stadium ban from
participating in the event or from leaving their home country,
this should also be referred to in the agreement." plus:

"It is
recommended that the head of the delegation, liaison officers
and spotters (police officers who have direct contact with supporters)
should not possess firearms Sometimes it is possible for police
officers (police forces) protecting the movement of supporters
to possess firearms or ammunition, however this depends on the
legal regulations and bilateral agreements between the two countries.
It is also possible to include a statement that police officers
may use coercive measures."

The government has announced plans
to introduce a new system of authorisation for undercover policing
operations in response to scandals that have plagued the police
since January 2011 when Mark Kennedy was ousted as a spy within
the European environmental movement.

What is missing from the government's
reponse is a willingness to re-define "domestic extremism"
so as to expressly exclude the right to protest in a democracy..

The high court has ruled that the
Metropolitan police acted unlawfully by filming a legal observer
and forcing her to hand over personal details so that she could
leave a "kettle" (surrounded and detained by a police
cordon), in what is the second legal victory this year for campaigners
attempting to limit the powers police have to gather information
on protesters.

Holding the police accountable for
possible misconduct during undercover deployments "will
be a long process" and "take perseverance," according
to Jenny Jones, the Deputy Chair of the London Assembly's Police
and Crime Committee. Jones has repeatedly questioned senior officers
from the Metropolitan Police on undercover deployments, which
received widespread attention in January 2011 following revelations
about the activities of undercover police officer Mark Kennedy,
but meaningful answers have not always been forthcoming.

"sports
fans who can be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, prone
to disturb public order by clashes with fans of opposite teams
or to commit other unlawful acts. In such an environment it is
relatively easy for a range of extremists or terrorists to blend
into the crowd and conduct an attack" and intelligence should be gathered
on "groups of radically-oriented individuals pretending
to be sports fans" [emphasis added] One of the counter-measures
should be "not to have a large amount of uniformed security
staff" but rather: "staff wearing civilian clothes".

EU: "Troublemakers" database still on the agenda:
See the Outcomes of the Council of the European Union DAPIX Working
Party: 11891/11 (p5, pdf). It will be
recalled that the notion of creating an EU-wide database on "troublemakers"
regarding public order was resurrected by the Swedish Presidency
and put into the Stockholm Programme. These Outcome state that,
unlike the usual EU process of "harmonising" existing
national laws, on the issue (defined as "travelling violent
offenders": "no legal definition of the term exists
in any of the MS" so Commission is funding a study to
come up with "at least three definitions of the term".
It should be noted that discussions in Council Working Parties
in 2008-2009 were not limited to "offenders" (ie: those
convicted of a public order offence) but extended to "suspected"
or potential "troublemakers".

ITALY: Is
there life after the Rosarno riots (OWNI, link): "On January 7,
2010 in Rosario, Italy, several shots were fired with air rifles
at three Africans who were returning from their work on the farms.
The rumor soon spread among the immigrants that some of their
own were killed. The news was false, but the mere rumor was enough
to spark their rage."

"In connection
with cooperation in the area of public order the Council approved
a Recommendation for the exchange of information on the occasion
of major events or meetings. Under that Recommendation any Member
State within which an event is to take place should be able to
call upon advisers from the other
Member States for the purpose of direct exchanges of information."

Italy
cleared of human rights violations in ECtHR ruling on Giuliani
G8 shootingOn 24
March 2011, the Grand Chamber of the European Court on Human
Rights in Strasbourg found that Italy did not contravene articles
2, 3, 6, 13 and 38 of the European Convention on Human Rights
when Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by a carabiniere [police force
with military status] during protests against the G8 summit in
Genoa at around 5 p.m. on 20 July 2001. The application by Giuliani's
parents and sister alleged breaches involving use of excessive
and lethal force, the positive obligation to protect life, the
organisation and planning of policing operations during the G8
summit, procedural aspects concerning the autopsy and cremation
of Giuliani's body, the right to an exhaustive investigation
and effective remedy and the Italian government's duty to assist
the investigation.

"1. Holds,
by thirteen votes to four, that there has been no violation of
Article 2 of the Convention in its substantive aspect as regards
the use of lethal force;
2. Holds, by ten votes to seven, that there has been no violation
of Article 2 of the Convention in its substantive aspect as regards
the domestic legislative framework governing the use of lethal
force or as regards the weapons issued to the law-enforcement
agencies at the G8 summit in Genoa;
3. Holds, by ten votes to seven, that there has been no violation
of Article 2 of the Convention in its substantive aspect as regards
the organisation and planning of the policing operations during
the G8 summit in Genoa;
4. Holds, by ten votes to seven, that there has been no violation
of Article 2 of the Convention in its procedural aspect"

UK: On Tuesday 22nd March, a three-day court case began that
will investigate police tactics used during the Camp for Climate
Action protest that took place in London at the same time as
the protests against the G20 in April 2009. 'The claimants challenge
decisions to kettle them, use of
overwhelming violent force, and the dispersal of protesters before
the Camp on Bishopsgate was due to come to an end. The test case
is the first of its
kind to be considered by the Courts since the challenge to kettling
at Oxford Circus on Mayday 2001.' See: Indymedia (link)

BELGIUM: Belgian
court sentences activists for EU protest (euobserver, link):
" A Belgian court on Thursday (17 March) handed down
a one-month suspended jail sentence and fines of 1,100
to each of ten Greenpeace activists for having duped security
and staged a protest during an EU summit in 2009. The protest
was staged as a "warning to EU leaders" a few days
ahead of a major climate change summit in Copenhagen. The activists
managed to join an official motorcade and use the VIP entrance
before being seized by security forces."

"The German police have
admitted sending undercover officers to other countries, including
Scotland, during a parliamentary hearing into the controversial
deployment of an undercover UK policeman in Germany." (The Local)

EU: Statewatch Analysis: The growing use
of preventative arrests (pdf) by Kees Hudig: Examines police
tactics to counter and thwart protests using mass and preventative
arrests, new laws and kettling to deny the right
to demonstrate

"According
to the TV2 News channel, the US embassy had employed between
15 and 20 people, including former high-ranking Norwegian police
officers, to monitor Norwegians in a bid to ward off attacks
on US interests in Norway. The surveillance had been going on
since 2000, said the report. Embassy-hired employees had photographed
people taking part in demonstrations and added their names to
a special computer database, SIMAS (Security Incident Management
Analysis System), TV2 reported."

"The
Security Incident Management and Analysis System (SIMAS) is a
worldwide Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) web-based application,
which serves as a repository for all suspicious activity and
crime reporting from U.S. Diplomatic Missions abroad (all U.S.
embassies and consulates)."

On 18 May 2010, the third section of Genoa appeal court overturned
the acquittal of several high level police officers present at
the raid on the Diaz and Pascoli schools during the G8 summit
in July 2001. The Diaz school had been made available by the
city council as a dormitory for demonstrators, whereas the Pascoli
school hosted a media centre, the Genoa Legal Forum, Indymedia
and other activist media groups, as well as providing office
facilities. One police official who was a defendant in the case,
MF, described the scene that he witnessed as a "Mexican
butchery". 93 people were arrested, 75 were taken to Bolzaneto
where they suffered further violence in custody after the indiscriminate
violence they were subjected to in the school

"This report totally vindicates what we have always believed
 that Blair was killed by one of six officers from Unit
1 of the Special Patrol Group whose names have been in the public
domain over all these years: Insp Murray, PC White, PC Richardson,
PC Scottow, PC Freestone and PS Lake. That serves only to emphasise
that there can be no excuse for the way in which the writer of
the report, like the police generally, sought to criminalise
the many protestors including Blair at the demonstration against
the National Front election meeting."

Deborah Coles,
Co-Director of INQUEST, said:

"The family, friends and community have waited for 31 years
for some public recognition and acknowledgement that the police
were responsible for Blairs death. We call upon Sir Paul
Stephenson to publicly acknowledge for the first time that a
Metropolitan Police officer was responsible the fatal truncheon
blow that killed him. The whole police investigation into what
happened on 23 April 1979 was clearly designed as an exercise
in managing the fallout from the events of that iconic day in
Southall, to exonerate police violence in the face of legitimate
public protest. The echoes of that exercise sound across the
decades to the events of the G20 protest and the death of Ian
Tomlinson in 2009."

Footnote: Blair
Peach was killed by the member of the Met's Special Patrol Group
(SPG) in Southall at a massive protest against the National Front
in April 1979. The then Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police,
David McNee, said at a press conference on 14 June 1979 introducing
his annual report:

"If you
keep off the streets of London and behave yourself you won't
have to worry about the SPG"

"Since the onset of the EUs response to the war
on terrorism the prime targets have been Muslim and migrant
communities together with refugees and asylum-seekers. Now there
is an emerging picture across the EU that demonstrations and
the democratic right to protest are among the next to be targeted
to enforce internal security.

EU: Climate Change
Conference in Copenhagen: Schengen
Border controls (EU doc no: 6927/10, pdf). Concerns temporary
reintroduction of border checks by Denmark at internal Schengen
borders from 1 to 18 December 2009 and shows that at the borders
with Germany and Sweden:

- 343 police
officers took part and the "Results" were:

- Number of persons
checked: 7,450
- Number of consultations of national and SIS databases: 807
- Number of refusals of entry: 22

"Many
were stopped and searched. "On Wednesday I was coralled
with 4,000 people for four hours for doing nothing," said
Tim Smith, a carpenter from London. "Now I have been stopped
and searched twice. I have been made to feel like a criminal
for exercising my right to peaceful protest.""

This analysis
seeks to identify some of the key points for understanding the
outcome of the trials involving demonstrators and police officers
in relation to events during the G8 summit in Genoa in July 2001,
and to investigate the implications for public order policing
and the right to demonstrate.

"We can
now see a pattern emerging across the EU where people who exercise
their democratic right to attend cross border protests are confronted
by aggressive para-military policing, surveillance, preventive
detention and expulsion.

This is a
reflection of the EU's definition of "security" at
international events which is now defined as covering both "counter-terrorism"
and "public order".

Back in 2003
the bilateral exchange of information on "suspected troublemakers"
between EU states for international events was agreed. What is
proposed now is not the one-off exchange of information related
to a specific event but a permanent EU-wide database of suspected
"troublemakers", this is utterly unacceptable in a
democratic Europe."

ROMANIA-NATO: Protests
repression during the NATO Summit in Romania: (2 April 2008)
One day before the start of the Nato summit in Bucharest, repression
against activists is increasing. People who look like activists
are picked off the street and detained by the police for no reason.
Once detained, the police appears to construct "offences",
such as interpreting the carrying of a pocketknife as arms possessions.
Every person coming to or leaving the convergence center, set
up for protesters from Romania and other parts of the world,
are in danger of getting detained (some simply for walking to
a nearby shop). The detained are interrogated, photographed and
fingerprinted in police stations, and held for up to 24 hours.
At the Romanian border several groups of activists have been
denied entry into the country. Indymedia
report in German and English
summary

"The
scope of the manual is now such that it applies to the security
(both from a public order point of view as well as counter-terrorism)
of all major international events, be it political, sporting,
social, cultural or other."

As regards public order and cross-border demonstrations it
says that the agencies should: "prevent individuals or
groups who are considered to pose a potential threat to the maintenance
of public law and order and/or security from travelling to the
location of the event" and for those who have entered
make: "The necessary arrangements for a quick and efficient
implementation of the potential expulsion measures"

Tony Bunyan,
Statewatch editor, comments: "Cross-border demonstrations,
like those is Gothenburg, Genoa and Davos, where people are exercising
their democratic right to protest should never be put in the
same bracket as terrorist attacks where the aim is to kill and
maim indiscriminately"

UK: Protesters were
held unlawfully, court rules - 120 people prevented from attending
demonstration against Iraq war at RAF Fairford will claim £3,000
each: Fairford (link)Sweden: Gothenburg
police chief acquitted over events of June 2001: ReportGreece: The "Thessaloniki
5" hunger strike leads to release: ReportGreece: The "Thessaloniki 5" on hunger
strike transferred to high security prison: ReportDutch government attacks Italian Presidency plan
to combat protests: ReportItalian EU Council Presidency: Plan to put protestors
under surveillance and deny entry to suspected troublemakers:
Special
ReportGerman police raid border camp and arrest 250 activists:
ReportG8: injured activist released from hospital after one
month - new video evidence demonstrates police negligence: ReportUK: Civil Contingencies
Bill: Emergency Powers - ancient arbitrary powers preserved:
Royal perogative and Privy Council to authorise emergency powers
and scope of new law extended to protect the government, the
state and financial institutions:Report
and documentsG8 Summit: Police raid targets media activists
and l'Usine Cultural Centre: ReportSpain: Legal action against
policing of demonstrations: ReportEU: Legal teams set up
for G8, Evian and EU Summit in Thessaloniki: Report
and contactsGothenburg, June 2001:
report on the trials: ReportExpulsion from Belgium
and Schengen bans for anti-war protestors: ReportPolice to provide the "news" during Danish
EU Presidency: ReportSpain: State
agencies put protestors under extensive internet surveillance:
ReportIndymedia
centres raided across Italy - updated 28.2.02: ReportEU: Anarchists to be
targeted as "terrorists" alongside Al Qaeda: ReportEU Presidency
present draft Council Decision to target protestors as "terrorists":
ReportIndymedia
centres raided across Italy (Wednesday, 20 February): ReportEU plans to extend the Schengen Information System
(SIS) to:
i) create
EU database to target "suspected" protestors and bar
them from entering a country where a protest is planned; ii)
create EU database of all "foreigners" to remove third
country nationals who have not left within the "prescribed
time frame": Special Statewatch report: The
enemy within II(3.12.01)

Special
Statewatch report on: The "enemy within" - EU
plans for the surveillance of protestors and the criminalisation
of protests which will:

* create
mechanisms for operational cooperation for which
there are no legal powers
* legitimise the ongoing surveillance by police and intelligence
officers (internal security services) of persons
or groups likely to pose a threat to public order and security
* create national databases of troublemakers based
on suspicion and supposition without any legal standards or data
protection and allow the unregulated exchange of this data

Report
and full documentationProposal to create EU
para-military police units to counter protests:ReportEU to adopt new laws
on terrorism: definition of "terrorism" to cover groups
with the aim of "seriously altering... the political, economic
or social structure" of one or more countries and their
institutions and includes "urban violence":Report
and documents

Genoa
Justice campaign: Site
Report by Annelie Buntenbach and Hans-Christian Ströbele,
Members of the German Bundestag, on their trip to Genoa on 25
and 26 July 2001:Report(Updated 17.8.01)Genoa: 20 of the PublixTheatreCaravan
detainees freed & Germany to challenge Italian "expulsion
orders"?Detainees freedDemand for the immediate
release of members of the PublixTheatreCaravan. Protest against
miscarriage of justice and for freedom of expression, 12.8.01:AppealStatements by two British people
arrested:StatementsCollection of reports on Genoa from
urban75:ReportsReport from La Repubblica
on police out of control, carried by Global Resistance: ReportGuardian report
says(27.7.01)220 people still being held:Report2,093 people refused
entry to Italy to attend Genoa protests:Entry
deniedUK Genoa protestors released:Report
and statement(Guardian) StatementBelated call by UK government for
inquiry into police violence:Report
(Evening Standard)
Fair Trials Abroad press statement on Genoa arrests:Genoa
arrestsIndependent Media Center reports
on police raids:Report
(1)Independent Media Center (IMC) on
police raids:Report
(2)(pdf file)
Amnesty International call for inquiry into policing:AmnestyGenoa, midnight Saturday 21 July:
Police raid
on independent media centre and school - many injured(22.7.01): ReportEvents leading up
to the Genoa protests: raids on social centres and left groups
and clashes at the Italian borders:Reports
from the groundFrench government stops train going to Genoa - G8 Summit
- update 19.7.01: French government bows to pressure
and lets train go ahead:GenoaPublic order policing
in Europe - policy backlash expected:Public
orderStatewatch:
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